Andfjord Salmon has successful inaugural harvest

Norwegian land-based salmon farmer Andfjord Salmon has successfully harvested the first batch of salmon grown inside the company’s facility in Kvalnes, Andøya, Norway.

The first harvest, the company said, yielded a survival rate of 97.5 percent, with a total biomass of 646 metric tons (MT), which translates to 540 MT head-on-gutted (HOG). The average weight of the fish stood at 3.4 kilograms.

"We are elated to achieve such a remarkable survival rate, especially after transportation to slaughter. The fact that 97.5 percent of the fish survived underscores that the fish has had excellent living conditions in the pool,” Andfjord Salmon CEO Martin Rasmussen said in a release.

The harvested fish, the company said, spanned a number of weights, from 1 to 2 kilograms up to 5 to 6 kilograms. Roughly half of the fish fell into the 2 to 3-kilogram weight category, and the company said it achieved an average price of roughly NOK 67 (USD 6.64, EUR 6.01) per kilogram.

An additional 40 percent of the fish, the company added, weighed between 3 and 4 kilograms, and achieved an average price of roughly NOK 80 (USD 7.93, EUR 7.18).

The lower-sized fish, Rasmussen said, are indicative of the high survival rates.

“We have harvested fish that may not have survived in other fish farming facilities. This has a negative impact on the average weight and superior share, which is still at an impressive level. However, a high survival rate is obviously the most valuable from a financial perspective,” he said.

Rasmussen added that the harvest showed several “high-quality” attributes, including the color.

“This reiterates the conceptual advantages of Andfjord Salmon’s salmon farming method. Our main goal for the first batch of fish was to reach the ‘right’ buyers, not to maximize the average price,” Rasmussen said. “Even so, we have seen buyers coming back after the first shipment wanting to pay extra for the next delivery. This has made us even more confident that we will be able to achieve a healthy premium on our product in the future.”

Looking forward, the company said that future slaughter weights should be “noticeably higher,” as the inaugural harvest was undertaken to accommodate further expansion construction.

Andfjord Salmon announced in June that secured the financing it needed to progress on its build-out plans, which will enable the company to increase its production to 40,000 MT of HOG salmon per year over the next several years. The company said that it should reach 8,000 MT of production capacity by 2025.

Later in June, the company netted a further NOK 615 million (USD 60 million, EUR 55 million) in funds through a private placement, adding to the funding available to expand its production.

The eventual goal is to increase beyond the 40,000 MT production capacity through future expansions.

“We have a clear roadmap to 90,000 MT annual production at Andøya,” Rasmussen said during a capital markets update on 13 June. During the update, Rasmussen also reiterated that the company’s strategy was to use its first pool to prove its technology and biological performance before progressing with the next stage of construction.  

Photo courtesy of Andfjord Salmon